Investigating Affective Experiences in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory: Students’ Perceptions of Control and Responsibility

Abstract

Meaningful learning requires the integration of cognitive and affective learning with the psychomotor, i.e., hands-on learning. The undergraduate chemistry laboratory is an ideal place for meaningful learning to occur. However, accurately characterizing students’ affective experiences in the chemistry laboratory can be a very difficult task. While attitudinal surveys offer some insights, an inherent limitation of such fixed-response surveys may prevent students from expressing how their laboratory experiences shape their affective learning. Conducting interviews, however, affords researchers the opportunity to hear students describe learning in their own words. One challenge with interviews is that students may not possess the vocabulary to precisely describe their experiences. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct interviews that encouraged and enabled students to verbalize their feelings about learning in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Interviews were conducted with 13 students wh...